Reclaiming Righteousness
Sunday, January 28, 2024 – 10 a.m.

Our live stream begins here at 10 a.m.

“Be attentive, be intelligent, be responsible, be loving, and, if necessary, change.”  – Bernard Lonergan

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS – Rev. Chad McGinnis

PRELUDE – Phillip Herr-Klepacki

CALL TO WORSHIP

For what has been, for what is now, and for what will be, let us give thanks.
By the presence of God, however known, in the midst of it all, let us be comforted; and to the call to live in justice and love whatever comes, let us respond:

Here I am. Amen.

OPENING HYMN – “We Limit Not the Truth of God” – sung to Forest Green

UNISON PRAYER – offered by Elizabeth Husband

Fluid God, Fear can make us demand definition from mystery. We tell stories about your static nature to make the divine digestible to us. We condense and simplify our own stories to make them clear and resolved. Since we were little, we’ve been dissected not with nuance and complexity, but by a zeitgeist that favors categories and binaries. It feels like we must choose – to be smart or pretty, to be angry or king, to be masculine or feminine, to be well or wounded. Free us from this confinement. Help us to remember we are not singular, that we are free to be more than one thing. Protect us from a world intent on narrowing our selfhoods. Remind us that these binaries exist not so that we might be understood but so that we might be made small. Guide us as we honor the sacred spectrums within each of us, and within one another. There is a multitude in us. We will not be reduced. Amen.  – from Black Liturgies, by Cole Arthur Riley

TIME WITH CHILDREN – offered by Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan
PRAYER
BIRTHDAYS

INTERLUDE 

SCRIPTURE – Jeremiah 31:31-34a

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.

SPECIAL MUSIC – “Just Around the Riverbend” by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz – offered by Elena Frenock

READING – from “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith” by Kathleen Norris – offered by Barbara Beynon

“As a poet I am used to saying what I don’t thoroughly comprehend. And once I realized that this was all it was – that in worship you are asked to say words you don’t understand, or worse, words you presume to think you have mastered well enough to accept or reject – I had a way through my impasse. I began to appreciate religious belief as a relationship, like a deep friendship, or a marriage, something that I could plunge into, not knowing exactly what I was doing or what would be demanded of me in the long run.”

SERMON – “The Scenic Route” – Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan

OFFERTORY – “Without You Without Them” by Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, offered by Fiona Hammond, Mira Lemstrom, Mae McGinnis

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PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE – Rev. Chad McGinnis

CLOSING SONG – “Will You Come and Follow Me”

BENEDICTION – Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan

“ALLELUIA”

POSTLUDE

 Here are our UCG friends celebrating a birthday this week!

Lent begins on February 14 and we are seeking submissions of art, photos, or writings for this year’s Lenten devotional booklet! Please email your submissions to Taylor Williams at gutsandglorygnv@gmail.com no later than January 31. For written word, please submit it in the body of your email or as a Word document. Please send all pictures and art pieces in a JPEG format. This year’s Lenten theme is “Lamentations.”

UCG Supper Club – The next supper club will be Saturday, February 24 at 6:30 p.m. and will feature a Middle Eastern menu with a lentil stew that contains ground lamb. We meet in groups of 8-10 in the homes of participants. Recipes are provided so that each group shares the same menu. Please contact Anne Casella (annecasella@gmail.com, 352 256-5960) or Kimberly McCollough (kmmcollough224@gmail.com, 352 378-8371) if you would like to participate. If you can host one of the groups, please let them know. The deadline to sign up is Sunday, February 11.

We will be welcoming new members on Sunday, February 11, and invite you to join us at UCG 101, our new members orientation on Wednesday, January 31 at 5:30 p.m. in Reimer Hall. Contact the office if you would like to attend (352 378-3500) or sign up on the bulletin board in the courtyard. Childcare is provided.